The last few months we have seen multiple threads and comments from players asking for a statement from the EU Community Team on “Game Modifications”. We've seen a lot of discussions about what’s good or bad, what should or shouldn't be allowed and mixed opinions regarding what is too much of an advantage. This has led to a lot of confusion and we would like to share some details regarding our stance in this. Firstly we would like to make clear the following point:

This statement isn't about presenting a list of officially sanctioned specific mods – this statement is to give you an idea of our perception regarding what’s considered “Fair Play” in World of Tanks.

There are various different mods that can be used to improve your gameplay by way of convenience and personalization. Examples of mods that would fall into this category would be mods that let you select a different shaped/colored cross-hairs, a different 6th sense symbol instead of the light bulb, or a different realistic and intense engine/gunfire sound changes. You might also for example choose to use a different camouflage skin for a specific tank, (only visible to you) use a different looking garage, or even have a different font for the main text. With or without these mods your gameplay isn't really affected. If you’re sitting next to someone with a default client, you don’t really have any advantage over them other than your UI looks a little different or the game sounds different.

Mods that totally alter *how* you play the game, are the types of mods we would recommend players to reconsider and exercise caution when you think about using them. When you’re being fed information that is not normally available either from your own eyesight/field of vision, and are basically relying on your mods to dictate what you should do and when, that’s when things are going too far. If you’re sitting next to someone with a default client, you would clearly have an advantage over them as you’re getting game data they don’t have and you’re using that to decide what to do. Even if this information was estimates, it’s giving you too much detailed info that normally you’d never know. At that stage it’s less about you playing the game but more about you playing your mods and the game is a secondary factor.

Installing a mod and checking for what it does ultimately is your responsibility as a player. Improperly installed (or non-compatible) mods might cause your game to lag or crash. Some mods may data mine your PC for sensitive data and corrupt your system. In short, if it the mod/addon is too influential and it changes your own gameplay we would recommend using common sense and uninstalling the mod/addon.

The REASON people want info on what mods are ok and what mods are not is so that there can be an even playing field.

This posts basically lets the player decide for themselfs if they think that the mod is ok or not.

Lets give an example:

It is clear (to me atleast) that a mod that gives transperant skins with hitboxes inside for modules are (atleast should be) ilegal.

It is also clear that a skin that has your own tank with a new shade of green/black/grey (for example) cammo is ok.

BUT there are infinite shades of gray in between those two.

What green colors can be used for the cammo? Can I have only black? Can you have green that really sticks out?

Is it ok to have every tank with a pink cammo to see them easier?

Is it possible to have tanks colored depending on their winrate so that you can kill the more dangerous targets?

I for example have a small screen have problems seeing some colors and have a slow computer.

I use a mod that makes dead tanks white. That solves all of those 3 problems (to some extent) for me.

- I have an easier time to see if a tank is dead even without seeing the colors of flames/smoke or anything else (due to problems with small screen combined with problems with colors).

- I dont get a huge laggspike everytime something dies, because the texture (totally white) doesnt require much to load when they die.

I myself think that this gives less of an advantage than having a larger screen or a better computer to play on for example, so I dont think that this should be counted as ilegal. However I dont know, since this post was so blurry on details.

So if you could give us info on where you draw the line in different areas, that would be great.

(I dont want to play unfairly in any way, so if it turns out that I have any mod that would be considered "ilegal", then I would ofcourse remove it at once, but how can I know right now?)

Also. Could you atleast whitelist or blacklist some of the most common mods that are ok / not ok?

For example we know that basically EVERYONE is using XVM, so is that ok? (I guess so, right?)

I think this is a great step forward, gj WG, +1. I guess listing specifically which mods are illegal / improper would be impossible because there are so many different mods. But clearly, things like the pro-scout mini-map mods that show you where to spot from, or the XVM mini-map mod with memory, spotting & draw ranges illustrated, XVM that shows you which enemy are the greatest threat so they can be targeted & taken out early, weak spot skins etc etc, all BAD!!! Good!

WG, you need to add an option in the ctrl +z function for in-game auto commands, for pinging "HACKER CHEAT!!!!" if someone goes in chat and says the XVM win chance or "gold noob"!!!

EDIT - re above, yes, while I guess a black list is virtually impossible to do a white list would be good, although what WG already said kind of sets the parameters of what that would be.

Edit again - lol, so many negreps, I guess cuz you think mods are good because they give you an advantage others don't have. Well, that says it all about you, and your stats.

Oh thank you very Much iScending and the EU Community team for nothing. I was hoping that at the very least we would have a taboo list and preferably a white list of mods to use/not use. The last time I saw something with so many words saying nothing useful was a political statement :(

The RU and NA servers can come up with a list WHY is it soooooo hard for EU to do one? I am very dissapoint

Why is it so difficult for you to explain in detail the kind of mods you don't want us to use ?

Just explain it with bullet-points.

Well, basically this sentence "information that is not normally available either from your own eyesight/field of vision" is nice excuse to ban basically anything if they want, starting from XVM minimap.

At no point in your Wall Of Text, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this topic is now confuss for having to read it. I award you no points, and may players have mercy on your negrep.

So after reading this several column speech of politics i end up with result that XVM is banned mod.

"When you’re being fed information that is not normally available either from your own eyesight/field of vision, and are basically relying on your mods to dictate what you should do and when, that’s when things are going too far. If you’re sitting next to someone with a default client, you would clearly have an advantage over them as you’re getting game data they don’t have and you’re using that to decide what to do."

XVM minimap mod(last known position) and hitpoints left on last seen falls under this sentence 100%. So question is should XVM users be punished or not? GG WG EU, i'll sit here waiting for list of non allowed mods as long as i change any of my mods to anywhere. (what other clusters have done already)

And I was thinking that iScending is someone better that most of WG EU... How wrong was I... Most useless stuff I've read in here for some time. What is so difficult to make a freaking list of banned mods? What? There is plenty of you working in that HQ so get your hands busy and actually work. Now don't tell me you are working - if you name lack of any info about game work then well...

We still have to search for any info on game on a freaking NOT related, outside blog that is more accurate than you will ever be apparently. How hard is to take one/two guys who speaks Russian, show them RU forums and make them translate what the blog is translating? What? To hard to comprehend? That way at least we would know which mods are really banned ( still better than this thing you call official statement...). Shame on you iScending and WG EU, shame on you.

The last few months we have seen multiple threads and comments from players asking for a statement from the EU Community Team on “Game Modifications”. We've seen a lot of discussions about what’s good or bad, what should or shouldn't be allowed and mixed opinions regarding what is too much of an advantage. This has led to a lot of confusion and we would like to share some details regarding our stance in this. Firstly we would like to make clear the following point:

This statement isn't about presenting a list of officially sanctioned specific mods – this statement is to give you an idea of our perception regarding what’s considered “Fair Play” in World of Tanks.
(...)

Regards,
EU Community Team

I am sorry to say this Iscending, but because of this official statement we will have even more (and definitely not less) confusion about legal and illegal mods in future.

First of all, if some #### (let's say: not a very good person) is using mod widely recognized as illegal, like for example War.... (4 last letters censored for obvious reasons - in this case we had statements even from game developers that they consider it highly illegal), you should not: "recommend player to reconsider and exercise caution when he/she thinks about using it" or "recommend using common sense and uninstalling". You should simply ban him (temporarily or permanently) and exclude from WoT community in order to enforce real "fair play environment". In this case trying to only invoke common sense is both pointless and harmful to the game.

Secondly: being so unspecified (and You and rest community team clearly should know from reading forum, how we wanted clear official statements in this matter (preferably similar to RU ones) ) is not only a mistake (which will encourage abusers to break rules) but also is quite disappointing.

The last few months we have seen multiple threads and comments from players asking for a statement from the EU Community Team on “Game Modifications”. We've seen a lot of discussions about what’s good or bad, what should or shouldn't be allowed and mixed opinions regarding what is too much of an advantage. This has led to a lot of confusion and we would like to share some details regarding our stance in this. Firstly we would like to make clear the following point:

This statement isn't about presenting a list of officially sanctioned specific mods – this statement is to give you an idea of our perception regarding what’s considered “Fair Play” in World of Tanks.

There are various different mods that can be used to improve your gameplay by way of convenience and personalization. Examples of mods that would fall into this category would be mods that let you select a different shaped/colored cross-hairs, a different 6th sense symbol instead of the light bulb, or a different realistic and intense engine/gunfire sound changes. You might also for example choose to use a different camouflage skin for a specific tank, (only visible to you) use a different looking garage, or even have a different font for the main text. With or without these mods your gameplay isn't really affected. If you’re sitting next to someone with a default client, you don’t really have any advantage over them other than your UI looks a little different or the game sounds different.

Mods that totally alter *how* you play the game, are the types of mods we would recommend players to reconsider and exercise caution when you think about using them. When you’re being fed information that is not normally available either from your own eyesight/field of vision, and are basically relying on your mods to dictate what you should do and when, that’s when things are going too far. If you’re sitting next to someone with a default client, you would clearly have an advantage over them as you’re getting game data they don’t have and you’re using that to decide what to do. Even if this information was estimates, it’s giving you too much detailed info that normally you’d never know. At that stage it’s less about you playing the game but more about you playing your mods and the game is a secondary factor.

Installing a mod and checking for what it does ultimately is your responsibility as a player. Improperly installed (or non-compatible) mods might cause your game to lag or crash. Some mods may data mine your PC for sensitive data and corrupt your system. In short, if it the mod/addon is too influential and it changes your own gameplay we would recommend using common sense and uninstalling the mod/addon.

Regards,
EU Community Team

Thank you for not stating anything with this wall of text.

You basically say that it's our sportsmanship decision what we use.

And that it's far too easy to find bad mods with hard copy rules than with Google.

Other servers got their forbidden mods list. You can't even say where a border is.

Either you do communicate with us customers or don't post such nonsense at all.

Today was one of the most air-blowing days in WG EU office live. You weren't incarnations of light before, but now, we Community (you are hired and get money for communicating with) have no stronk feeling of any understanding of our needs in Paris office. Seriously: All these statements (in different languages -- German thread is overflowing with hate) is showing that WG EU does not understand both the game nor the community.

So according to that XVM is now banned mod since it feeds you "information that is not normally available either from your own eyesight/field of vision", and it definitely can change how you play in some situations.

Edit:

Did multiple posts just get silently deleted, I was sure there were more posts before I hit post.